If the Boss thought I was going to respond to his flurry of faxes at ten o’clock on Sunday morning, he was— well, he was right, in a way. I faxed him back a copy of the invoice he asked for, and I also faxed him the email he got from a potential new client. Yes, that’s how computer illiterate he is. I get the email, he gets a printed copy of it and wonders what those little @ symbols are all about.

But that was it, as far as any interactive work experience was concerned. I had plans to do my own thing, and responding to his endless probing and prodding wouldn’t have let me get through the tasks I needed to do today. So I cut him off, and to his credit he stopped bugging me right away. And I got that employment form from the state government finished. You know, the one they sent me again last week, with a note that included the words “second request” and “mandatory compliance.”

And I puttered around with the other year-end stuff that I needed to do, either to close out 2007 or get started on 2008. I definitely wanted to write paychecks on Tuesday and date them in January, so I had to import all the new payroll tax information and get it set up. Actually, I think my own check is the only one I’ll be writing this week, but I don’t take that lightly, especially with Christmas bills coming due.

So now I feel ready to put the finishing touches on the year tomorrow. I’ll let the Boss have as much input as he needs to have to feel in control, but I’ll argue with him when I think he’s wrong, too. After twenty years of doing this, I get a sense of the rhythm of what it takes to get from 11:59 pm to 12:01 am. And it doesn’t involve being out on the roads with all the amateur drunks, either. Not while Dick Clark is still alive.